the central subway is in phase two of the light rail project, which does aids north from forth and king street to chinatown. there is a service station on brandon and for, and then it goes into a portable under the i-80 freeway. then it moves along fourth street and stockton to move up to union square, chinatown. in january this year, the transportation authority authorized the final design for the project. later in march, the transportation authority board adopted a budget of $1.5

billion, he residence service state of august 18. to date, from the inception of the project, $60.3 million in expenses. the full funding grant agreement is expected in november. that is the means by which the term federal transportation authority guarantees of the funding for the project. that is when the funding levels are agreed to. right now the project is in the final design phase which will be from -- has been running from june of this year until june 2012. the work is basically working on the design itself, plan specifications, estimates, but

also, right away acquisitions, fta road map, it interagency coordination. the road map, which is attached to your documents, i believe it starts on page 54. it is a rather extensive list of deliverable that the fta has determined necessary to cement before they can agree to the final funding. the final design phase is also happening concurrently with the early construction. in the design phase, there are basically three design contracts, 14 tunnels. -- one for tunnels. the construction project was advertise september 18.

this the middle will be later on this month. the other two contracts, they are not as advanced, and they do not need to be because of the procurement comes much later in the schedule. early construction. the fda, as a matter of policy, allows nonprofit construction procurement prior to the funding agreement. to this end, we are looking at two utility contracts. the first one is 70% complete. it will be done by december of this year. the second one, as i just mentioned, will be advertised in september. there is also a tunnels contract, a $2 million project. this project will have three separate notices to proceed.

the first notice will be for the procurement of the tunnel boring machines. this process will take about one year. that is why it is done in a dance -- in advance. the second notice to proceed will be the construction of the access pit, putting the machine in the ground. the third one will be for the actual construction, the tunnels themselves, in 2012. in the area of dock right-of-way acquisition, there are two properties that need to be taken completely. one is in chinatown. it has eight retail tenants on the first floor, 19 residential units. relocation needs to be done for those of depends.

the mosconi station only has two commercial use tenants. in addition to these, there are various underground easements. earlier in july, the transportation authority approved the impact relocation study. it addressed how the 55 residents of chinatown will be relocated. they need to be provided comparable housing. that was approved. right now, the mta is negotiating the acquisition of the properties. they should go to bid by march of this year. also part of the project is an arts program, which is in accordance with seven to discuss city policy. -- san francisco city policy. the purpose of this is to commission some of our local pieces. right now, the budget for this

portion is $14.5 million. basically, it is intended to enhance the rider's experience. you notice the station we have on market street right now are rather bare, except for advertising -- utilitarian is a better word. to that effect, in july of this year, two artists were selected for the project. they are now in the development stage. mta submitted the report for the new starts. the letter for prejudice approval. that will allow them construction on that access to it. -- access pit.

then in february, a major milestone, full funding. immediately after, construction will begin. revenue service, just for the christmas season. the funding plan is mainly unchanged from the baseline. the funding shortfall has been reduced to $133 million from $164 million. that was from high-speed rail connectivity funds that were identified to be used on the project. i also need to mention, even though technically it is not a shortfall,bn @ there are $88 min in tcrp funds that are dedicated to the project, but because of the state of the economy, it is

unlikely that those bonds will materialize. commissioner chu: so it is $88 million on top of the $133? >> yes, these are state funds, traffic improvement funds. because of the financial state, it is unlikely that those funds will materialize on time. it will materialize and eventually, but they -- it will materialize eventually, but they will need something to fill the gap in the meantime. with that, that completes my

presentation. commissioner chu: the shortfall is the $133 million and the back fall, the $88 million, the amount that mta needs to secure before 201. 1. is there an end to a representative who can speak to what the prospects are, are you explore options for that gap, what are they? >> good morning. we have been exploring with a group called the mind the gap group. the committee has come up with a series of underpriced

strategies for closing the gap. -- unprioritized strategies for closing the gap. we do not need to have all the money in hand, we need the commitments in hand. some of the funding, we do not expect until december 2011, but we have to demonstrate to our partners that our funding is solid. right now, there are the gaps. that said, we submitted a new annual report to the fta. we are still processing that internally and we will be briefing staff on the findings of that report in the next few days, weeks. commissioner chu: thank you. when would be inappropriate time to get a report, update from this committee to educate us on where we are with closing that gap? >> thank you for the question.

i think it would be important to have this discussion prior to the next meeting of the plans and programs committee, so that you can be informed about it at the next meeting. the project and process is moving forward. what joel said is correct, you do not need all the money in and, but it will make a stronger case when you are arguing it did before congress. particularly, for a project this size and with this much the visibility. an active role on your part, in terms of understanding where things are going and where advocacy will be needed, so with your blessing, a level schedule it for october. >> any other questions from the committee? are there any members of the public who wish to speak on item #8?

>> howard wong. savemuni.com. we hope on behalf of ridership, the mta, ta, exert the same passion in seeking funds for the muni system, not only for the restoration of service that has already been cut in december and may. but the deferred investment of $1.9 million that the m.t.a. study has concluded has been missing. $609 million, the structural deficit for the maintenance of the existing fleet. the central subway, as you may know from our previous

communiques, in our opinion, is a poor investment, a politically initiated projects that does not serve chinatown or north beach. the central subway projects project -- reduction of services to the stockton corridor. about 75,000 hours per year. we think even the existing state and local funds of $384 million, of which $123 million in prop k funds, might be a salvation of the muni system in the next few years as the city faces increasing budget deficits. we hope there will be some enlightened leadership, if not from our city, from washington, perhaps the fta themselves,

independent agency that are not as potenbeholden to the politicl forces in the city, to guide us, in no way that will improve public transit for all of san francisco in the coming years. thank you. >commissioner chu: thank you. are there any other members of the putt that would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioner dufty: i just want to comment, as a supervisor who has a district including the castro, i cannot imagine the sustainability of my neighborhood without rail transit. the central subway will offer the reliability of hundreds of thousands of people every year to go to chinatown in a very expedited and fast manner, also union square. i think it does set an important

milestone, in terms of providing rail access to other parts of the city. i think this is an important project and is good for the city as a whole. commissioner chu: thank you. any other comments from the committee? commissioner cihu? commissioner chiu: this is a project that will have an enormous impact on the community. insuring that we have real north/south access to our system will expand our transit options and will help the community in ways that is hard to imagine at this time, particularly being able to use such an enormous amount of federal funds in these tough economic times is an opportunity that we have already decided on numerous occasions as a city to move forward on and that i will continue to support. >commissioner chu: thank you.

next item. >> introduction of new items. this is an informational item. commissioner chu: commissioners? commissioner dufty: earlier today, we took action on a number of black related funding items which all of a strong support. i recently spent a bit of time with some policy makers, representatives of the dpw, visitors from the netherlands, to see how public transportation and biking is really a way of life, but not here in the country. i would like to hear an item at the ta to discuss the future of the bicycling in san francisco. we have been in conversations with representatives from other departments, the viking community, and we would like them to take part in a

conversation so we can inform the work that the ta is doing. commissioner chu: thank you, commissioner. related to the topics we spoke about earlier today, we may have spoken on, taking action on with regard to the central subway. it was simply an update to where we are in regards to closing the gap. that will be an important conversation to have. at least an update on where we are heading to, where we might need more help. the other issue relates to the $100,000 additional increase for the audit. i know that we spoke earlier about the opportunity to bring back to the committee, once we have a good idea of the scope and completion of the components of that. i would also like to request that we have that update as well.

any members of the public who wish to speak on item number nine? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item 10, public comment. commissioner chu: any members who would like to speak in general comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> item 11, adjournment. commissioner chu: thank you, we are returneadjourned.

because we have a great waste water system here in san francisco, we do about 80 million gallons of waste water here in san francisco, which means we basically fill up 120 olympic sized swimming pools each and every day here in the city. we protect public health and safety and environment because we are discharging into the bay and into the ocean. this is essentially the first treatment here at our waste water treatment facility. what we do is slow down the water so that things either settle to the bottom or float to the top. you see we have a nice selection of things floating around there, things from

bubble gum wrappers, toilet paper, whatever you dump down the toilet, whatever gets into our storm drains, that's what gets into our waste water treatment and we have to clean. >> see these chains here, this keeps scum from building up. >> on this end in the liquid end basically we're just trying to produce a good water product that doesn't negatively impact the receiving water so that we have recreation and no bad impact on fish and aquatic life. solids is what's happening. . >> by sludge, what exactly do you mean? is that the actual technical term? . >> it's a technical term and it's used in a lot of different ways, but this is organic sewage sludge.

basically what it is is, oh, maybe things that come out of your garbage disposal, things that are fecal in nature. it's sludge left in the water after the primary treatment, then we blend those two over and send them over to digestion. this building is built to replace tanks here that were so odoriferous they would curl your hair. we built this as an interim process. >> is there a coagulant introduced somewhere in the middle of this? . >> this coagulant brings solids together and lets the water run through. that gives us more time in the digestion process, more time to reduce the amount of solids. these are the biggest ones in the world, like we always like to do in san francisco.

they are 4 meter, there's none like it in the world. >> really? wow. >> three meters, usually. we got the biggest, if not the best. so here we are. look at that baby hum. river of sludge. >> one of the things is we use bacteria that's common in our own guts to create this reduction. it's like an extra digestion. one of the things we have to do to facilitate that is heat that sludge up and keep it at the temperature our body likes, 98.6 degrees. >> so what we have here is the heat exchanger for digester no. 6. these clog up with debris and we're coming in to -- next wet weather season so we always come through here, clean them out, make sure that we get maximum heat exchange during the colder wet weather.

sludge season. >> rubber glove. >> right here. >> rubber glove, excellent. all right, guys. >> thank you. >> good luck. >> this is the full on hazmat. . >> residual liquid. we're taking it time to let it drain. we don't want to get sludge on it necessarily. take your time. stand on the side of it. . >> should we let it release for a while? . >> let it release. >> is that the technical term? . >> this is the most important bolt on the whole thing. this is the locking bolt. it locks this thing right in

place. so now. >> take your hammer and what we want to do, we get rag build up right in here. the hot water recirculates right in here, the sludge recirculates in here. the sludge sometimes has rags in it. all we want to do is go around the clean the rags. let me show you how. take the slide hammer, go all the way through the back, go around. >> got you. >> during the real rainy season, how does that change the way dealing with this job? is it a lot more stuff in there? . >> what we do, charles, we do this quarterly. every four months we go around and clean all the heat exchangers so we don't have a large build up. . >> go around?

. >> yeah. (sound of hammering). >> what i'm trying to do, charles, is always pull it out on the low stroke. >> right. so you are not, like, flying out. now talk about clean up. . >> then where does this stuff get deposited? . >> we're going to dump it in a debris box and it will go back to the plant. >> if you think back, the romans came up with a system of plumbing that allowed us it use water to transport waste away from the hub of civilization, which enabled cities to grow.

. >> you have a large bowl, a drive motor and another motor with a planetary gearbox with differential pressure inside there. the large mass up there spinning separating the solids from the liquid. we have to prevent about once a month, we go in there grease those, change the oil, check the vibration levels. the operators can tell just by the hum of that machine that it's a harmonic noise emitted that it's out of balance and the machine needs to be cleaned. it will start vibrating and we have vibration analysis machines that will come over here and check the levels. so it's kind of an on-going thing that you have to stay on